Vincent Carroll

Carroll: A setback for election integrity

House Bill 1303 would be a setback for Colorado elections, writes Vincent Carroll. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)

Last year, the Pew Center for the States released a report titled "Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient: Evidence That America's Voter Registration System Needs an Upgrade." Among other things, it revealed that "almost 2.7 million people appear to be registered in two states, and more than 70,000 people could be registered in three or more."

The Colorado legislature isn't helping matters with House Bill 1303, which has passed both chambers and awaits the governor's signature. The bill requires mail ballots be sent to all registered voters, whether they've cast ballots in recent elections or not — and halted when the ballot is returned or the state learns through other checks that someone has moved or died.

One critical backstop is the National Change of Address file maintained by the Postal Service. But in an era in which snail mail is rapidly losing its relevance, particularly for young adults, that file is hardly comprehensive. And yet as Pew points out, "Census numbers from 2009 reveal one in four adults ages 25 to 34 changed residences."

So what happens in homes where, say, a 20-something takes a job in another state? The ballots could just keep on coming.

Nor is the risk of two-state registrations the most troubling component of HB 1303. Since the bill mandates hundreds of thousands of ballots be sent to people who either have no intention of voting or who are determined to vote in person at a polling center, it clearly increases the temptation and opportunities for less exotic forms of fraud, too.

Advertisement

County clerks, most of whom support the bill, get all huffy at the talk of fraud, as if it were an alien concept to Coloradans. And after all, the clerks insist, they've got these nifty, nearly foolproof ways of verifying ballot signatures.

Except maybe they're not so foolproof. Election integrity activists wonder, for example, why rates of rejected ballots vary so much if the checks are as good as advertised.

"How can Douglas County, with signatures verified by machine, have a .2 percent rejection rate and Denver County have a 10 times greater rejection rate at 2.3 percent?" wonders Marilyn Marks of The Citizen Center. "These variations mean that thousands of voters' ballots are either being improperly rejected or improperly counted."

Marks considers present-day signature verification a "joke."

As a final insult, HB 1303 mandates Election Day registration, under which someone could register and vote within minutes with nothing more than a utility bill.

Currently, election officials usually have 29 days or more to try to verify registration data.

To be sure, some Republican lawmakers have exaggerated the threat of last-minute registration, accusing Democrats of trying to rig the system in their favor.

Sen. Steve King, R-Grand Junction, got so carried away, according to Fox 31, he suggested that "a group of anarchists, looking at a way to overthrow our government," might take advantage of the new law.

Such full-throated partisan hysteria makes the dubious assumption that Democrats are more likely to engage in fraud than Republicans. And as for anarchists, who are they voting for these days anyway?

Still, given the lack of safeguards, Election Day registration surely will make it easier for dishonest people of whatever political stripe to engage in fraud. Election workers in theory should be able to check whether someone using the same name and address has already voted in another county, but most cheats aren't so stupid to fall into that trap.

According to Secretary of State Scott Gessler, other states with Election Day registration usually have safeguards that HB 1303 lacks.

How about a simple photo ID, for example — and if you don't have one, your vote goes into the provisional pile? That way, if the vote is genuine, it can still be counted before the election is certified.

HB 1303 probably won't usher in an era of wholesale fraud, as Republicans suggested, but it does crack the door to the unscrupulous at a time when confidence in the electoral system could actually use a boost.

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

PARIS (AP) — Bye, New York! Ciao, Milan! Bonjour, Paris! The world's largest traveling circus of fashion editors, models, buyers and journalists has descended on the French capital, clutching their metro maps and city guides, to cap the ready-to-wear fashion season. Full Story